It’s been approximately 16 months since I entered the working world and assumed responsibility for my personal finances. In that time, the number of accounts and expenses I need to track has grown to the point where I’m desperately in need of a tool to manage it all.

There are so many options that it’s hard to distinguish one from the next, so I turn to the PickTheBrain community: what tool do you use to manage your personal finances?

Here is the main criteria:

• Simple: Tons of features aren’t a must, but speed and usability are.
• Cost Effective: Cheap is the best price, but I’d spend a moderate amount for the right package.
• Accessible: Ideally there would be a solution that can be accessed from multiple computers (PC and Mac).
• Comprehensive: Capable of handling a wide range of expenses, income streams, and bank/investment accounts.

After that I’m open to anything. I really appreciate your responses and hopefully we’ll be able to create a comprehensive list of best tools available.

There’s a big myth in our culture: that passion can only be spontaneous. You either love your job or you don’t. You either enjoy exercising or hate it. You are interested in reading books or you find them boring. That passion can’t be forced or created.

I disagree. Passion can be created. Even for things you don’t currently enjoy.

By tweaking the activities and pursuits you engage in, you can find a passion for anything. All it takes is a bit of patience and an open mind.

The benefit is that you end up loving the things you have to do anyways. Exercising, learning, studying, working and almost any pursuit can be made into a passion. And if you know how to do it, existing passions can be turned from mildly interesting to exciting. The skill of finding your passion is like turning up the dial for the amount of color you experience in life.

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The ancient Romans and Greeks placed tremendous demands on the memory. Lawyers and politicians were expected to memorize long, complex arguments and deliver them impeccably, while poets delivered epic works orally as a type of theater (in fact Homer was most likely illiterate).

In order to accomplish these tasks, the ancients used a memory improvement technique discovered by the Greek poet Simonides:

Although the method may seem peculiar at first, any person can use it to improve their recollection of anything, from shopping lists to lecture outlines. Once you find a way to “see” the items you must remember, you can use the trick on different strings of information.

The mnemonic device, known as the loci method, involves placing mental pictures of items in specific locations inside a room, in a specific order. A person can then “walk” through the room and see all the objects that must be recalled. Each person must develop his or her own locational system. Teachers in antiquity recommended using public places such as temples or meeting houses as sites for spatial memory training; an individual would stand inside a temple and memorize the position of each column and statue, from the main entrance, along the right wall, across the front, back down the left wall, and so on. Each item from a list would then be assigned to a column, statue or other feature, in a given order. Later, the memorizer would visualize the room to find each item.

The articles goes on to provide some practical examples for putting the technique to use in your own life. There is also an interesting back story about the technique’s original discovery.

A Memory Improvement Technique from the Greeks and Romans [SciAm] (via SharpBrains)

As creatures of habit, who like to repeat the same behavior, our personal finance habits have an enormous impact on our financial well being. Unfortunately, all too many people fall victim to the same common money mistakes.Recognizing and eliminating these mistakes is the first step to financial independence. Here are the money mistakes that you need to avoid. How many are you guilty of?

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Note: Each week PickTheBrain reviews a book or product related to self improvement. This review represents the honest opinion of the author, but we’d like to disclose that we receive a small commission on orders.

Some of you might recall when PickTheBrain first mentioned Happier, after Tal-Ben Shahar’s appearance on The Daily Show a few months back. It was exciting to see that self improvement is spreading to Harvard classrooms and being legitimized by academia and the mainstream media.

After finally finishing the book, my overall impression is a good one. Although I wouldn’t put it in the same league as The Magic of Thinking Big, it is definitely a worthwhile book that introduced me to some new ideas and gave me a lot to think about.

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Would you pay money for something without knowing the price? Not likely. Would you pay attention to something without knowing the price? Most of us do every day…

In the information age, we have finger-tip access to a staggering amount of information, collectively described as “media noise,” vying for our attention: We have the old print media, such as magazines, newspapers, and books; and we have the electronic media, such as radio, satellite radio, cable television, satellite television, video games, internet search engines, websites, personal pages and blogs.

As we, knowingly or unknowingly, consume staggering amounts of information every day, do we ever stop to think about the price of that consumption?

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A couple months ago when I wrote about investing time wisely and the concept of multiple positives many readers commented, saying that an excellent way to educate yourself and spice up an otherwise boring workout is listening to audio books and podcasts while you hit the gym. It also works great for beating the boredom while you’re stuck in traffic during your daily commute.

To help you find the best audio content the web has to offer, I’ve compiled a list of resources for free audio books and podcasts on a wide range of interesting topics. Enjoy, and you if know of any good sites I’ve overlooked, please leave a link in the comments.

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To get ahead in life, you need to be in the business of selling. If this statement makes you cringe, it is probably because the word “sales” evokes images of annoying telemarketers and pushy car dealers. Relax, though, as this article is about a product so wonderful and special you should have no qualms in selling it. The product? You.

There are endless situations in life where the key to success is the ability to sell yourself to others. In your career, the ability to convince an interviewer that you are the best person for the job is critical. When it comes to relationships, your ability to show your best qualities can be the crucial factor in clinching a date with the girl or guy you want. When you think about it, if you cannot sell yourself as a person to others, you are going to have a difficult time selling them your ideas, your wishes, your needs, your ambitions, your skills, and your experience.

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A couple years ago I stopped believing in addiction. It’s not that I doubt the strength or existence of chemical and psychological dependencies — the bottom line is that everything is a choice. Addiction is somewhat like peer pressure–it hovers around, urging you to do something, but the decision to take action is yours. When people say that they can’t give up an addiction, it usually means that deep down they don’t want to or don’t believe that it’s possible.

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Most of life is habitual. You do the same things you did yesterday, the day before and every day for the last month. It’s estimated that out of every 11,000 signals we receive from our senses, our brain only consciously processes 40.

Habits, good or bad, make you who you are. The key is controlling them. If you know how to change your habits, then even a small effort can create big changes.

I’ve been using these techniques for years to re-engineer many aspects of my life. That includes overhauling my diet, exercising regularly, cutting out television, and bulking my e-mail and work routines. Little changes that, when put on autopilot, can result in an improved quality of life.

Here are some tips to get you started:

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